Jetty hits one million milestone
The one millionth tonne of material has been delivered via HPC’s jetty since operations began in 2019. Some 6,000 tonnes of coarse aggregate was offloaded for the concrete teams. The jetty has now received more than 380 ships, including additional non-aggregate deliveries to the project, such as components for the dome.
MEH works making good progress
Progress is being made across site for the MEH works. In the electrical building, work is underway at the -6m level, installing electrical and pipe supports. Work has started on both demineralised water tanks for the Nuclear Island and Conventional Island.
Components arrive for travelling crane
More than 40 separate packages of components have now been shipped and stored safely for the 300-tonne travelling crane, along with a smaller 20-tonne crane. Assembly work on the crane is due to start later this year. It will then be installed in the turbine hall next year when three large sections will be joined together, commissioned and tested. The crane will then be handed over to General Electric (GE) ready for the start of the steam turbine assembly. It was manufactured by contractor Fayat Lifting in Nantes, France, the import arrangements for the shipment to Avonmouth were handled by Osprey, and storage and eventual forwarding to site will be managed by the team at Wincanton
Successful hydrotest of reactor pressure vessel
The Framatome team at Saint-Marcel in France has successfully completed the first hydrotest on the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for Unit 1. The RPV’s chamber was filled with cold water using a hydraulic pump to raise pressure and to demonstrate that the welds were leak-free within strict safety tolerances. It took more than a day to fill the RPV with water (around 150m3), given that the chamber measures about 12m tall and six metres in diameter.
Taken from The Point October 2022
